Dean Graeme Harper
Office: Dean’s Office

The Honors College

Oak View Hall
Phone: 248-370-4450 E-mail:
Personal Web Page:

Biography:

Before arriving at Oakland, Dr. Harper held posts in Texas (at the University of Texas Medical Branch), Alabama (as the Paschal P. Vacca Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts at the University of Montevallo), and in the United Kingdom and Australia. Formerly a Director of Research and Chair of Research Ethics, he has been a Foundation Chair of a number of academic departments, centers and institutes.

Asa member of Britain’s Arts and Humanities Research Council from 2003 he has widely assessed research proposals in the Humanities and the Creative Arts, including what is often referred to as "practice-led research", in which he is an internationally recognized specialist. He has also assessed research proposals for research in the Social Sciences, in Medicine and in relation to new technologies. In the wider academic world, he has examined undergraduate and graduate work for over 40 institutions worldwide, and research and new teaching programs for organizations in the United States, continental Europe, Africa and Asia.

A former research committee and business and community engagement memberof the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), which deals with technological developments for some 18 million academic users, for three years (1998-2001) he was also an appointed member of the European Commission’s Culture and Education Panel of Experts, where he assessed projects concerned with new technologies, film and media and community development.

He is an elected Fellow of such organizations as the Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM),the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)and the Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI).

As a CVCP Commonwealth Scholar, he completed the first doctorate in Creative Writing awarded in Australia, and later completed a second doctorate at the University of East Anglia as an ORSAS international scholar. He was the inaugural Chair of the Higher Education Committee (2008-2011) at Britain’s National Association of Writers in Education. Director of Collaboration Lab and the ICCWR and former director of Digital Humanities (UK), he is co-director of the European Cinema Research Forum (with O.Evans), director of the Creative Universities initiative, and an enthusiastic member of the national Council for Undergraduate Research (CUR), where he is an elected At-Large Councilor (2014-2017).During the years between his bachelor and doctoral degrees he became a formally trained boat-builder, building fishing trawlers and coastal patrol boats, and spent some months as a pro-am surfer, a screenwriter and film-maker, and a marketing and distribution company managing director. He holds business qualifications in Executive Studies.

At Oakland he directs the Michigan Center for Undergraduate Research (MCUR) and the Center for Undergraduate Research Leadership (CURL)

To date, he has published around 25 books and over 140 articles and chapters. His awards include the Australian National Book Council Award (for New Fiction) and the Premier’s Award, among others, and scholarships and fellowships from the ORS, The British Academy, AHRC, BBC, Emory University, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

Degrees:

- Ph.D. - Doctor of Philosophy (University of East Anglia)
- DCA - Doctor of Creative Arts (University of Technology, Sydney)
- MLitt - Master of Letters (University of New England)
- BA - Bachelor of Arts (University of Sydney)
- PGCertES - Graduate Certificate in Executive Studies (Bangor University)
Fellow:

Royal Society of Medicine (FRSM)

Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)

Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI)

Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)

Research Interests:

Creative Writing &Critical Understanding in Creative Writing
Medical Humanities and the Cultures of Medicine

New Technologies
Film Studies
The Anthropology of Creativity
Creative Industries
Books (Selected):

  1. Challenges (MLM, in press, 2014)
  2. The Future for Creative Writing(Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
  3. Teaching Creative Writing in Schools (Research Innovation, 2014)
  4. The Invention of Dying, as Brooke Biaz, (Parlor, in press, 2014)
  5. The Blackwell Companion to Creative Writing, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013)
  6. Film Landscapes: Cinema, Environment and Visual Culture, with Jonathan Rayner (Cambridge SP, 2013)
  7. Making Up: Research in Creative Writing, (Cambridge SP, 2013)
  8. New Ideas in the Writing Arts(Cambridge SP, 2013)
  9. Research Methods in Creative Writing, with Jeri Kroll (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012)
  10. Key Issues in Creative Writing,with Dianne Donnelly (MLM, 2012)
  11. Inside Creative Writing(Palgrave-Macmillan, 2011)
  12. The Bookstores of Panapoon, as Brooke Biaz, (CIP, 2011)
  13. On Creative Writing(MLM, 2010)
  14. Visit the Communion Islands, as Brooke Biaz, (CIP, 2010)
  15. Authors at Work: the Creative Environment, with C.Sullivan, (Boydell-Brewer, 2009)
  16. Moon Dance, as Brooke Biaz, (Parlor, 2009)
  17. Cinema and Landscape: Film, Nation and Cultural Geography, with J.R.Rayner (University of Chicago, 2008)
  18. Creative Writing Studies, with J. Kroll (MLM, 2008)
  19. The Creative Writing Guidebook(Continuum, 2007)
  20. Sound and Music in Film and the Visual Media, with R.Doughty & J.Eisentraut (Continuum, 2007)
  21. Teaching Creative Writing(Continuum, 2006)
  22. The Unsilvered Screen: Surrealism in the Cinema, with R.Stone (Columbia University Press, 2006)
  23. Small Maps of the World, as Brooke Biaz (Parlor 2006)
  24. Signs of Life: Cinema and Medicine, with A Moor (Columbia University Press, 2005)
  25. Comedy, Fantasy and Colonialism(Continuum, 2002)
  26. Colonial and Post-colonial Incarceration(Continuum, 2001)
  27. Black Cat, Green Field(Doubleday)

Films, New Media, Performances (selected):

Digital Projectorings 1- 12(public art project, 2010-2011);My Life as a Mouse(Kindle book; text by Millicent Hope-Crest, 2011);Virtual Clay, Electric Glass(documentary film, with J.Cofield, S.Meyer & John Perrault, 2010);Seasons(choral work, with E.Wright, 2009);Collaboration Laboratory(Interactive Video Program); Visiting Japan(wiki-novel, 2004);Dancing on the Moon(DVD: Interactive, 2003); Clay(Web Project, 2002);Shoeless(Film, 2000); Creative Writing in Higher Education(film, 1999).

Book Series Editor:

New Writing Viewpoints(Multilingual Matters) - to date he has edited 6 books in this series and welcomes book proposals for inclusion in the Series.

Approaches to Writing(Palgrave-Macmillan) - to date he has edited 4 books in this series and welcomes book proposals for inclusion in the Series.

JournalEditing/Editorial Boards:

Editor-in-Chief:New Writing: the International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing()

Editor: theCreative Industries Journal(Associate Editors: Kyle Edwards & Debi Hayes)

Co-Editor:Studies in European Cinema(with O.Evans),Journal of European Popular Culture(with C.JohnstonO.Evans) -

Editorial Board:Axon, Writing Commons, BukkerTillibul Arts Journal, Write4Children, Touchpaper(with L.Browne),Journal of Recorded Research.